Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto from Rancho Santa Fe Elementary in Litchfield, Arizona, spent more than a month at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida helping to set up and analyze the experiments. She was responsible for loading the experiments for the flight aboard Endeavour, and for retrieving the experiments once the space shuttle had landed.

“How does exposure to microgravity affect the swimming patterns and development of zebra fish?”

Videos showing the lab work can be seen on ustream, and a description of the program is at STEMStream TV.

Student teams submitted 447 proposals, from which 16 were selected—one for each community. You can visit the SSEP Community Network Hubsite for the list of winning proposals. And a second Student Spaceflight Experiments Program opportunity was created when STS-135 Atlantis was added to the space shuttle flight manifest.

Veronica is the Arizona regional coordinator for the Planetary Society, at-large director for the National Space Society, president of the Arizona regional coordinator for the Planetary Society, at-large director for the National Space Society, president of the Phoenix chapter of the National Space Society, commander of the Family Living Analysis on Mars Expedition and co-founder of the non-profit organization, Astronauts4Hire.

EVA2. 21 May – Began with rerouting the P3-P4 ammonia jumpers. The Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) was exposed and lubricated, as was the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM). And the ammonia system was vented.

EVA3. 25 May – Work was performed on the Zarya module, including installation of the Power Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) and a variety of cables.

EVA4. 26 May – The 162nd and FINAL Space Shuttle spacewalk. The Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) was transferred from Endeavour to the ISS (at the Starboard 0 / starboard 1 truss interface) and a PDGF was installed so that the SPDM can attach it.

Cady Coleman returned from 157 days on the International Space Station. The Russian TMA-20 spacecraft undocked from the station’s Rassvet module May 23, 2011, at 2:35 PM Phoenix time (2135 UTC). The crew landed safely at 7:27 PM (0227 UTC) southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

Air Force Colonel Catherine Coleman flew aboard the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft to serve as a flight engineer for Expeditions 26 and 27. A veteran of two shuttle missions, Coleman’s last spaceflight was in July 1999 as the lead mission specialist for STS-93 aboard Columbia.

On STS-93, she was responsible for the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Coleman’s first flight was aboard STS-73 Columbia from 20 October to 5 November 1995. The mission focused on materials science, biotechnology, combustion science, the physics of fluids, and numerous scientific experiments housed in the pressurized Spacelab module.

Since 1992, she has been heavily involved with astronaut training during her career at NASA

Mark Kelly is a Captain in the U. S. Navy, and the Commander of STS-134, the final mission for the Endeavour space shuttle. One of the primary goals is to deAlpha Magnetic Spectrometerliver the eight ton to the International Space Station (ISS). The experiment involves 600 scientists from 16 countries, led by Nobel Prize winning physicist Samuel Ting of MIT.

Captain Kelly commanded STS-108 Endeavour in December 2001, where the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module delivered supplies to the ISS. It was the 12th shuttle flight to the Space Station. In July 2006, he commanded STS-121, which was a return-to-flight test mission and assembly flight to the International Space Station.

Prior to STS-134, he commanded STS-124 Discovery in May of 2008. This was the 123rd Space Shuttle flight, and delivered the 37-foot (11-meter) Japanese Experiment Module-Pressurized Module (JEM-PM), also known as Kibo, and the Japanese Remote Manipulator System.

Good Morning. At 5:20 Phoenix time, we are 40 minutes from launch and in a planned hold at T-Minus 9 minutes. The weather is good and the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has been cleared for launch by Range Safety.

The launch window for Endeavour will open at 5:55:43 Phoenix time (1255:43 UTC), the optimum launch time is 5:56:28 (1256:28 UTC), and closes at 6:01:29 AM (0101:29 UTC).

Endeavour at T-minus 9 and Holding
Image Credit: NASA TV

At 5:41 AM we are 15 minutes from launch and 6 minutes from resumption of the count. Final polling of all systems is taking place at this time. All systems are go.

The Russian Progress M-10M resupply spacecraft completed its docking with the ISS at 7:28 AM Phoenix time (1428 GMT).

Endeavour is scheduled for launch at 12:47 PM Phoenix time (1947 UTC). You can watch the launch live at NASA TV.

Notice: at 1610 UTC, the launch of Endeavour was scrubbed due to a failed heater in the APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) of the Shuttle. It looks like there are multiple failures on APU1. The Load Control Assembly appears to be the problem, although a short is possible.

On 27 July 2015, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, eleventh President of India and a friend and inspiration to the National Space Society (NSS), passed away. “NSS would like to convey our condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Kalam, … Continue reading →

The National Space Society (NSS) is organizing jointly with the Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) a “home district” blitz during August when Congress is in recess and members of Congress are most probably in their home districts. The themes for the … Continue reading →

Video of press conference below. The National Space Society (NSS) and Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) today announced their support for NASA’s funding of the newly released NexGen Space study, illustrating how to cut the cost of human space exploration by … Continue reading →

David Brandt-Erichsen

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